Your Mental Health Rights: How They Protect and Support Your Recovery
What You Can Do When Things Go Wrong: Your Right to Complain

Whether you are in the community, or in a state hospital, or in a private hospital, if you think something is going wrong, you have the right to complain. You can complain about any of these things:

• your care;
• your treatment;
• your living conditions;
• any services you get, or that you can't get; and
• anything else that doesn't let you have your rights.

Something called a "Grievance Procedure" tells the right way to complain so that people who give services pay attention.

Every place that gives mental health services has to have a "Grievance Procedure," and has to have a person who helps you understand the grievance procedure. The "Grievance Procedure"

• has to explain what you do to complain;
• has to be written;
• has to be in a place where you can see it;
• has to make sure that you can get help to make your complaint;
• has to say how long it will take to get an answer to your complaint;
• has to make sure that you will get your answer in writing; and
• has to make sure that you can make your complaint somewhere else (the "Grievance Procedure" has to have the names, addresses and phone numbers of places where you can complain, like the Community Mental Health Board, the Ohio Department of Mental Health, the Ohio Legal Rights Service, the Ohio State Medical Board, the Ohio Board of Nursing, etc.).

If you ask for it, someone has to give you a copy of the "Grievance Procedure." And no one is allowed to hurt you or threaten you if you make a complaint.

Things you can do:

• If someone hasn't told you about the "Grievance Procedure," you should ask about it.
• You can tell your complaint to the client rights officer, or write it on paper and give it to him or her (this is called a "grievance").

Things you should know:

• If you don't feel comfortable making a complaint, you can ask someone to do it for you (someone like a client advocate, a friend, family member or Ohio Legal Rights Service).
• No one is allowed to hurt you, or punish you, or threaten you, or try to scare you if you make a complaint, or even if you say you are going to make a complaint.

You can complain or "appeal" any grievance decision by writing to the State Clients Rights Advocate (State CRA) of the Ohio Department of Mental Health. The client advocate must help you with this if you ask him/her. You have to do this sometime in the 10 days after you get the grievance decision. Then, sometime in the 10 days after the State CRA gets your complaint, he or she has to tell you if the grievance decision is right or wrong. If it is wrong, the State CRA will say what has to be done next.

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